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Anthropology and the Environment
May 1996
C.J. Stevens (contributing editor)
Recruitment is still the primary concern for the section as we must have 250 members by the November meetings. Please remit your $15 membership fee through association membership services. Pay now and avoid the fall semester rush!
An informal session was held at the annual meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania titled Sustaining Islanders: The Political Ecology. According to the session format of the ASAO, the 12 participants in this session agreed to continue with this session at the working level next year when the participants' pre-circulated papers will be formally discussed. The participants of the session met for a total of 6 hours discussing topics on describing and evaluating the relative sustainability of island cultural ecologies and economies.
At this informal level, participants were required to present summaries of papers in progress. Nancy Pollock (Auckland) is examining the process of environmental rehabilitation of the island of Nauru four-fifths of which has been rendered inhabitable by phosphate mining. In principal, the ecological concerns are to take precedence over economic ones and the could serve as a model for environmental rehabilitation in other places. Paul Shankman (Colorado) is beginning research on the adaptation responses of Pacific Islanders to two consequences on ENSO anomalies in the Pacific Ocean:alteration of water resources and the increased frequency of hurricanes. Water resource issues are to be studied on Kapingamarangi Atoll and societal responses to hurricanes will be studied in American Samoa. Larry Gorenflo (Argonne National Laboratory) is studying the implications for sustainable development of demographic change in the Federated States of Micronesia. His research focuses on the demographic composition and the geographical distribution of populations and their effects on the flow of resources and labor in current development schemes in FSM.
Eve Pinkster (Chicago) has also done research in the Federated States of Micronesia on assessing the effects on Micronesian lifestyles brought by the Compact of Free Association between FSM and the United States. The Compact will end in 2001, and no negotiations have been scheduled to construct a new association between these island states and the United States. Her research focuses on those most dependent on the economic benefits of association as well as those more indirectly dependent on monetary flows from the government all of which are at risk of ending at the end of the year 2000. Jim Hess (California-Irvine) has studied the sustainability of the traditional chiefly system in the Marshall Islands that controlled access to land and the distribution of agricultural resources. The traditional authority of the chiefly system has been challenged by the islands' involvement in external capitalist economies which facilitated accumulation of wealth outside of ties to the land.
Michelle Dominy (Bard) has been studying the role of the landscape in shaping political identity among highland sheep farmers in New Zealand. The farmers, who developed their own indigenous knowledge on sustained husbandry in the rugged highlands, are at risk of having limits placed their activities by urban based government officials calling for a reversion of the land to "natural" landscape conditions. In this dialogue, a specific conception of "sustainability" formulated by urban elites has given priority of an idealized ecology over that of a culturally constructed landscape which is instrumental in maintaining the political identity of a marginalized group.
Mike Leiber (Illinois-Chicago) has studied technological innovation in the sustained fishing practices on Kapingamarangi atoll and has written a book, More Than A living, about fishing on the atoll. Leiber follows the innovations in fishing technology and the relative sustainability of these forms under changing economic regimes. The sustained reliance on marine resources was also a research concern Mike McCoy of the Department of Fisheries in Hawaii and Bob Franco. Franco and Craig Severenson's research has noted significant continuities in the fishing practices of Samoan Islanders despite clear and obvious changes in all other areas of economic activity. Their issue concerns the stability of the linkages between Samoan out migrants and their families and the influence of remittances on the maintenance of traditional economic activities.
Mike Evans (Northern British Columbia) presents evidence that the MIRAB (Migration, Remittances and Aid Based) economies of the Pacific, specifically, Tonga, may be more sustainable than previously considered. The remittance of money to Tonga from out migrants constitutes as much as 60% of the Tongan economy and is based on strong ideologies that ensure the primacy of the family over that of the individual and the flow of remittances to Tonga shows no sign of decline.
Marion Kelly (Hawaii) and Ulla Hasanger (Hawaii) are both interested in the growing concern in Hawaii with the diversion of water away from native Hawaiians who had used these resources for highly sustainable agricultural production. The issue has surfaced as part of the broader issue of Hawaiian native sovereignty and a concern for the degradation in water and other resources brought by the drive to continue development of tourism in the state.
In addition to these participants, an additional three of four scholars have indicated an interest in participating in a formal presentation of papers on the subject of sustainability in Pacific Island economic activity. Documentation of indigenous knowledge in the area of agroforestry will be presented by Stevens (Arizona) based on his work in Tonga and a number of European scholars working in Oceania have voiced interest in participation. For further information contact cstevens@anthro.arizona.edu and evansm@unbc
Considering the growth of scholarly interest in environmental issues generally and the relatively increasing availability of funds for research in the area, one could be led, erroneously it turns out, to believe that there would be a concomitant increase in the development of programs in some aspects of ecological or environmental anthropology. A less than rigorous review of the programs in anthropology reveals that there are three anthropology programs in United States universities geared specifically towards graduate education in anthropological research in environmental issues. These are the Human Ecology program at Cook College-Rutgers, The Anthropology Department at the University of Georgia, and the Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change headed by Emilio Moran at Indiana University.
The Human Ecology Department at Rutgers is a multi-disciplinary research and teaching department committed to addressing the human dimensions of environmental problems and includes the participation of faculty from the departments of geography, psychology, sociology and anthropology. The department was created in 1973 by Andrew Vayda, who remains on the faculty along with Bonnie McCay, Barbara Grandin, George E.B. Morren, Jr., and Peter Guarnaccia. The program includes specialists in ecological theory, cognitive theory, medical anthropology, fisheries and marine conservation, livestock pastoralism, tropical forest use as well as suburban lifestyles and environmentalism, risk management, and international environmental studies. The non-anthropology faculty includes Baruch Boxer (comparative marine environmental sciences), Thomas Rudel (demography), Neil Weinstein (risk perception and interventions), and George Clark (population and environment). Assistantships to prospective students are available and there are hopes of having a certificate Program in Human Dimensions of Environmental Change in place by the end of the year. Work is being done in North America, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, West and East Africa, the Hispanic Caribbean, Ecuador, Hong Kong and Mainland China. For more information about this program contact The Department of Human Ecology, Cook College, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08903-0231. Phone:(908) 932-9153. (Thanks to Bonnie McCay for this information about the program at Rutgers.)
The University of Georgia's graduate program in anthropology is focused on ecological and environmental education and takes advantage of the university's well established tradition in ecological research. In addition to the anthropology department, the university also houses the Institute of Ecology, the Environmental Ethics Program, the School of Forest Resources, and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The Anthropology Department is headed by Robert Rhoades, and the faculty include Charles Hudson, Ben Blount, Brent Berlin, Carolyn L. Ehardt, Ted Gragson, Virginia Nazarea, Stephen Kowalewski. and Elizabeth Reitz. Laboratory facilities for ethnobiology, biodiversity, agriculture and natural resources, archaeology, ethnobotany, zooarchaeology, the Sustainable Human Ecosystems Laboratory, as well as ethnolinguistics laboratory facilities are available in the program. On going projects in ethnographic research and training and sustainable agriculture may provide opportunities for students to pursue dissertation research in the context of ongoing interdisciplinary team research in the Philippines, Ecuador, and coastal Georgia. For more information contact: Graduate Coordinator, Department of Anthropology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-1619. Phone:(706) 542-3962. (Thanks to Bob Rhoades for this information).
The Anthropological Center for Training and Research on Global Environmental Change located at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, was designed to provide interdisciplinary research and training in the human dimensions of environmental change. The center is particularly interested in conducting research and finding effective strategies for the restoration of degraded environments and for the development of sustainable uses of natural resources. The center's research focuses on local populations' management of natural resources and monitoring these activities with the use of remote sensing technologies and field studies. The center is designed to be interdisciplinary in nature and places emphasis on local, human responses to environmental change. The center provides facilities for research by faculty, students, postdoctoral fellows, and visitors from NGO and other organizations. Computer facilities are available in three major platforms used in computing (Apple, DOS, and UNIX). For further information contact Emilio F. Moran, Director, ACT, Student Building 130, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. Individuals interested in training at ACT should provide information on their research goals and skills, time expected at ACT, funding sources and duration, and specific areas of training desired.